My college has made changes to my fafsa twice, but how do I know what exactly they changed? because my pell grant decreased by $100 even though my efc is still the same. and for some reason the college changed my parents’ filing status even though in april my parents amended their returns. After they amended it I changed it to ‘married filing jointly’ but the college changed it to ‘head of household’. And they were the ones who told us to amend the tax returns and change it to ‘married filing jointly’ in the first place, so why would they change it? Plus they changed my grade level to “attended college before/1st year” from “never attended college/1st year”, but I haven’t attended college, I’m a high school senior.
You need to contact the college and ask them.
Sounds like maybe someone may have made a mistake, so be sure to call and ask.
@kelsmom I called today and they said that they aren’t allowed to make those changes and that they didn’t make them. And the lady who I spoke with said that my parents filing status says married filing jointly, but when I check, it says head of household. So now I dont know what to do…
What says “head of household”?
@mom2collegekids my parents’ filing status
You said after the amendment, you changed the status to “married filing jointly.” This statement implies that originally it was listed as something different…what was the original status you indicated?
@kgos16 it was originally ‘head of household’.
Do your mom and dad live separately, perhaps one even out of the country? HOH is a legitimate filing status for a married person under some circumstances. It’s possible the school advised you incorrectly to file an amended return with married filing jointly. I would contact the school and ask to talk to a more senior person in the office, even the finaid director about this and why they changed your fafsa to attended college previously. The answer you received about the school not being able to change the fafsa is not correct. Did you only submit fafsa to one school? If you submitted to multiple schools it could have been one of the others that changed your fafsa.
@annoyingdad No, my parents live together. They weren’t supposed to file HOH, that was a mistake. I was thinking that also, but why would another school change my fafsa if I’m not attending that school? I already picked the college that I’m going to be attending and told the other schools that I won’t be attending their college.
I am wondering if you are reviewing the very first transaction you submitted as head of household. It is hard for us to know without sitting down with you or having access to the individual FAFSA submissions.
why would another school change my fafsa if I’m not attending that school? I already picked the college that I’m going to be attending and told the other schools that I won’t be attending their college.
When you make changes to your FAFSA, it goes to all the schools you have listed on the FAFSA. The fact that you didn’t choose to attend one of those schools does not mean that school isn’t still working on your financial aid file as if you were attending. You probably didn’t tell the school’s financial aid office you aren’t attending, so they’ll just keep on doing what they do … aid offices at large schools operate as if you “will” attend.
You can find out which school changed your FAFSA. Call the FAFSA help line, and they can find out. I don’t think it really matters, though. If the school you will attend tells you they don’t have the changes, it means they weren’t sent to them, or they don’t import changes made by other schools or they lock your verified FAFSA in their system. Call the school again and ask to speak with the financial aid officer assigned to your file. Ask if they have everything they need, and if so, ask if your awards are final. Go from there.
@kgos16 no, I’m looking at the last changes that were made, which was on June 3rd. I compared it with my first transaction and they are different
@kelsmom That’s probably what happened, another school might have made the changes, but I still don’t get why they would change my grade level. I will call both the FAFSA help line and my school’s financial aid office again on Monday, thank you so much.